Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was very overdue for a re-read of this. I’m sad that Bradbury passed away and that that’s what it took for me to return to this classic. I think I should probably re-read this every few years — I don’t think I’ve read it since high school! I was amazed how prescient this was with everyone distracted by earphones, immersive “reality” technologies, and a lack of “being present”.
There are many classic lines, that I’d mostly forgotten!
If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.
We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?
If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none.
Playing the stock-market, of course, the last refuge in the world for the dangerous intellectual out of a job.
‘To hell with that,’ he said, ‘shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.’
And of course: “If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you’ll never learn.”
When this guy became a Bush supporter I really wondered whether he’d ever read his own book.